UW–Madison’s Bursar Office notified students of a tuition increase through an email after the Board of Regents approved a 3.75% increase for all Universities of Wisconsin after a 10-year tuition freeze, according to an April 4 press release. This increase comes after a 4% tuition increase at UW–Madison last year, according to previous reporting from The Badger Herald.
Starting next fall, in-state undergraduates at UW–Madison will pay an additional $362 for tuition, with out-of-state undergraduates paying $1,464 more. Segregated fees for all undergraduates will also increase by $35.
According to Agricultural and Applied Economics professor Steve Deller, the funding from the state that goes to support public higher education has been declining for about 30 years and the Universities of Wisconsin have been needing to make up for those financial resources.
The other Big Ten schools have been increasing their tuition over the last 10 years but UW–Madison hasn’t been able to do the same because of the system-wide tuition freeze, Deller said. This contributed to financial pressures that led the universities to increase fees in order to make up for the difference.
Despite the tuition increase, Deller said the tuition at UW–Madison is still lower than that of other comparable universities. Estimated tuition and fees at UW–Madison for 2024–25 are around $11,606 for in-state undergraduates, compared to $17,640 at the University of Illinois. In 2023–24, University of Michigan in-state undergraduates paid about $17,228 for tuition.
“When you look at tuition costs for Wisconsin and you compare it to say, Illinois or Michigan or some of the other state schools — we’re really cheap,” Deller said. “And that’s because of that tuition freeze. So even with these modest increases in tuition, we’re still pretty cheap compared to other Big Ten schools.”
According to Deller, UW–Madison has been able to absorb the financial pressures better than other UW schools. In January of this year, UW–Oshkosh cut 216 employees and didn’t renew contracts for roughly 40 instructional academic staff. This came in response to budget cuts due to an $18 million structural budget deficit this fiscal year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Raising the tuition at UW–Madison will offload similar pressures to reduce academic services and opportunities within the university, according to Deller. But, this can increase financial pressure on students by raising student debt, which is becoming a serious issue with the costs of housing also increasing each year.
During last year’s tuition hike, The Board of Regents also created a $1000 tuition differential charge for the undergraduates in the School of Nursing, and increased the the differential charges for undergraduates in the School of Business and the College of Engineering to $2,000 each, according to the Bursar’s Office.
Associated Students of Madison representative for the College of Engineering Ayush Jadhav is an Engineering student who received last year’s increase in both tuition and differential tuition.
“I can see a lot of people being affected by this [upcoming] tuition increase, especially people who are juniors or seniors, because they only have two years left,” Jadhav. “You just have to pay it at that point. You can’t leave or anything. You’re like being forced to pay the increase.”
A data analysis from the Institute for Higher Education Policy shows 90% of students receiving the Pell Grant still have unmet needs, compared to 56% of those who did not receive a Pell Grant. Students of color and low-income students are most likely to have unmet needs in affording college tuition, according to Inside Higher Ed.
“I know personally, a bunch of people who use certain jobs to pay for their rent and stuff because their parents don’t pay for that,” Jadhav said. “And with a tuition increase, it’s going to be even harder when people are taking out loans to pay for stuff.”
Currently, the Wisconsin Scholarship Hub offers program-specific scholarship applications including for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Letters and Science and campus-wide scholarships.
UW–Madison Office of Student Financial Aid communication manager Karla Weber Wandel said students should also submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to receive federal, state and UW–Madison financial aid.
